The Olympics are a celebration of athletic excellence as nations around the globe send their best athletes to compete for gold and national prestige. It is, or at least was, the pinnacle of all sporting events. The games typically open and close with pageantry to emphasize good sportsmanship and unity in the games to establish the world’s best athletes. However, the Paris Olympic Committee took a different approach. Viewers were stunned and disgusted by a ceremony marred by public deviancy and open disdain for Christianity.

It was no surprise the French ceremony would be avant-garde, but the rampant lewdness was shocking and unnecessary. In one skit, three gender-bending characters cavorted about, provocatively ending their segment closing a door to insinuate an imminent mènage á trois. But what does bisexual sex have to do with the Olympics? It is France—so some license might be granted for their risqué sense of art. However, the parody of Christ’s Last Supper by Leonardo DaVinci was simply an in-your-face attack on all Christians.

The backlash was rightly fierce and swift, so the creators immediately started backpedaling. Joined by the usual leftist apologists, they scolded Christian dolts for misunderstanding and just not appreciating interpretive art. They claimed it was just a Bacchanal—oops, that’s a Roman orgy. So, they quickly shifted to a Greek pagan festival. Then some tried to say the obscene scene was not a parody of The Last Supper. That’s patently false.

There’s a lot of misinformation, but we can discern the facts. The creator of the Olympic Opening Ceremony, Thomas Jolly, previously admitted that DaVinci’s "Last Supper" was indeed his inspiration and defended himself as not the first to offer an alternative interpretation of the iconic painting. The infamous horse rider was intended to depict Sequana, the ancient Gallo-Roman goddess associated with the River Seine, not the Pale Rider in Revelation, but Christians may see the coincidence of the rider called death followed by Hades.

Jolly, an avowed LGBTQ+ activist, certainly has a right to interpret the Last Supper as he sees fit, but the real question is why the Paris Olympic Committee thought it was appropriate. Leftists are bemoaning Christians as being overly sensitive and prudish, so let’s examine how Jolly’s interpretation was highly offensive to all people of faith.

Jolly chose to portray Jesus Christ as an obese lesbian. It’s hard to imagine a more cynical and derisive portrayal of God Almighty. To some two-billion Christians, Jesus is their heavenly Father, but Jolly intentionally demoted him to just plump pagan chick at a party – that’s beyond disrespectful and repulsive.

Jolly turned the Apostles into drag queens to imply they were just homosexuals at a self-indulgent party. His message is clear that morality has been overcome by hedonism. He even placed a child at the table next to a man with his testicles exposed in a nod to pedophilia!

Perhaps the most egregious insult to Christians was inserting Dionysus, the ancient Greek god of winemaking, orchards, and fruit, vegetation, fertility, festivity, insanity, ritual madness, religious ecstasy, and theatre, as the main course for the Last Supper in place of Christ’s body and blood. Christ offered the bread of life and the blood of eternal salvation, but Jolly replaced such hallowed sacrifice with the god of insanity and ecstasy! Again, his message was clear that salvation is trivial and no better than debauchery.

Jolly is correct that he changed one of the holiest episodes in Christianity into a prurient pagan festival, but he claims his intent was inclusion – a celebration where everyone felt welcome. So, why were other religions excluded, like Islam? It’s obvious—had he mocked Islam, Paris would have been burnt to the ground. Why were Christians singled out, mocked, and made to feel unwelcome?

The answer is clear. Popular culture holds anything sacred in contempt, and promotes anything profane because Popular culture is obsessed with its own self-gratification. Extreme modernists are quite simply narcissists. It’s inescapable. They fully intended to maliciously mock Christianity because it conflicts with their overwhelming desires to indulge the flesh above all else.

Thinking they are being rational, too many Christians are oddly defending this gross affront and admonishing other Christians to just get over it. Christians have generally only criticized the disgraceful show and voiced their acute disappointment, and have not burned anything or rioted. They have indeed turned the other cheek.

In an attempt to censor Christians, some are calling any criticism of the degenerate, farcical performance to be spewing hate. Really? Protesting the smear of the God we worship should not be heard? That’s hateful, but viciously maligning our Lord is not hateful?! What if someone parodied Barack Obama in an unflattering caricature? The left would make arrests!

Leftists, the militant LGBTQ+ movement, and their apologists are complaining Christians are hating on them and not showing the love of Christ. Despite the fact they routinely hate on Christians, Christians are showing love by shining the light of truth into the depraved darkness. There is no hate for the lost souls that produced the Paris abomination, but rather declaring we can do better and sharing the truth of Jesus Christ’s grace to save even those lost souls if they will only seek the light.

The despair and deplorable conditions around the world are result of the darkness spread by these so-called enlightened leftists. We are in this sad state because Christians have been silent for too long. As Sir Edmund Burke said: “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.”

“Do not be deceived: God is not to be mocked. Whatever a man sows, he will reap in return. The one who sows to please his flesh, from the flesh will reap destruction; but the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life” (Galatians 6:7-8).

Pete Riehm is a conservative activist and columnist in south Alabama. Email him at peteriehm@bellsouth.net or read all his columns at www.renewamerica.com/.